The Dwarves of Everquest Dungeons were going to be a version of their earliest evolutionary state. Their creator, the God of Underfoot, Brell Sirilis, fashioned a Dwarf from clay. I thought it would be interesting to give the designs a look as if they were molded and modeled from clay complete with finger marks and depressions as well as etching from clay tools.

Meanwhile, I had another concept artist do a take on a more rocky, stone look with faceted designs and tile work reminiscent of Mayan tile art. The creative director also had an idea to embed and adorn their bodies with gems since they were abundant in their environment.

Another take was to have this concept artist explore a more expected and on point approach The gems were embedded in their armor for these designs.

These silhouette studies focused the overall silhouette around a square shape.

This is an example of my art direction notes grouped into areas of focus for the concept artist’s next iteration of visual development work. The direction narrowed the ideas that would make the Dwarf race distinctive in look from the other races and accentuate their unique qualities.

The final design of the Dwarf is the more expected, stubby silhouette shape but with some unique design ideas such as a rock-like faceted armor design, embedded gems, squared off and faceted body parts, decorated with linear patterned curls.